The Central Marin Sanitation Agency has signed a five-year agreement to provide sewer service to San Quentin State Prison, despite an ongoing lawsuit filed by the Ross Valley Sanitary District to block the deal.

Under the new contract, the prison will pay a maximum of about $1.6 million per year, $8.7 million over five years, to the agency for wastewater treatment, and operation and maintenance of the prison's main pump station and force main.

So far, Ross Valley Sanitary has spent $178,000 on its suit challenging the agreement between the Central Marin Sanitation Agency and the prison. CMSA has spent $56,000 on its defense.

The Central Marin Sanitation Agency, which consists of the Ross Valley district and two other Marin County sewer districts, was formed for the purpose of constructing and operating a wastewater treatment plant in San Rafael. The Ross Valley district pays the Central Marin agency to cover the cost of having its effluent treated and repays debt owed for construction of the treatment plant.

Until July 1, 2012, the prison was paying Ross Valley Sanitary for its sewer service. Greg Norby, RVSD's general manager, said some context is necessary to understand why his district is willing to spend so much on the suit.

Revenue 'lost'

"To put that figure in perspective," Norby said, "when CMSA and San Quentin State Prison unilaterally ended the San Quentin State Prison-Ross Valley Sanitary District contract, the district lost nearly 10 percent of its utility service revenue immediately."

The prison severed its relationship with RVSD after learning that it was paying more for the treatment of its sewage waste than it should have been.

Former RVSD board member Steve Vanni said, "My recollection is the district knew about it (the overcharge) and didn't do anything about it until they lost the contract."

During the fiscal year that ended June 30, 2011, the prison paid the Ross Valley district nearly $3.7 million. Of that amount, the Ross Valley district forwarded $1.9 million to the Central Marin agency, for treatment and disposal of the prison's sewage and the prison's share of the cost for building the San Rafael treatment plant. Ross Valley kept the balance, $1.8 million, as payment for maintaining a pump station at San Quentin and the pipes that deliver the effluent to the plant.

Under the new contract, the prison will pay CMSA $1.42 million in fiscal 2015 — $848,189 for wastewater treatment, $476,595 for San Quentin's share of the CMSA treatment facility building costs, and $100,000 to maintain and operate a pump station.

RVSD's argument

In its suit, RVSD asserts that the contract between the prison and CMSA is illegal because the pipes that transport the prison's sewage to the CMSA plant are owned by RVSD and because the prison is located outside the legal boundaries of CMSA's service area.

Jason Dow, manager of the Central Marin Sanitation Agency, said the state Department of Corrections maintains the state purchased the prison's pump station and pipelines during the early 1990s and that the pipeline is located on state property.

As for RVSD's argument that CMSA can't contract with the prison because it is located outside its service area, Dow said, "San Quentin is outside Ross Valley's service area too."

Dow said CMSA has the same authority and limitations as all of its members, which includes RVSD. He said if RVSD could provide sewer service to the prison, even though the prison is outside its service area, then CMSA should able to do the same thing, "because we have the same authority as Ross Valley."

The legal battle is unfolding in Sonoma County Superior Court, where the case was moved at the request of RVSD.